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Take Out Restaurants

Takeout windows trend in America's food cities

Mark Rogers and Nicole Schnitzler
Special for USA TODAY
Moruno is located in L.A.’s Original Farmers Market, so diners can combine takeout with hours spent exploring the market. Moruno’s cuisine shows Spanish, Moorish and North African influences, with lots of grill-fired dishes.

A trend that is currently gathering steam is takeout window restaurants — and Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City are always on the culinary cutting edge. Some of these takeout window restaurants are standalone structures, while some – such as Fritzi and Blue Window in L.A. – are part of a larger more traditional venue.

“I could talk all day about the young Hispanic families that live next door that I feed daily and the people driving Range Rovers from up the hill and all the young artists and college kids,” says Matthew Dickson, chef at Division 3. “I worked in New York, Paris, was chef at Coyote Cafe New Mexico, San Francisco and all over but I got burnt out on fine dining cooking. What makes us different is we are here to take care of our neighborhood and those who travel to visit our biscuit shack. I feel that the locals get left out too much on many new restaurants and that sucks.”

Some takeout window restaurants find their niche and concentrate on a single dish, whether it's pizza or hamburgers, while others take pride in constantly changing the menu and offering more exotic fare, such as Spanish-inspired cuisine at Moruno, or Filipino-American at Amboy.

Big cities can be challenging when it comes to traffic and parking, and travelers have so much to see and do that these takeout windows are quick and convenient. Browse the gallery above for standout takeout in L.A., Chicago and New York.

Al fresco dining in America's food cities

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